When people think of Egypt, the first thing that comes to mind is the mysterious pyramids and the various buildings associated with them.
The most famous of these is the Sphinx, located northeast of the Pyramid of Khufu, which has long become an iconic attraction in Egypt.
There are so many legends about the Sphinx, whether it's the mystery of the missing nose or the mystery of the human face, which has attracted countless people to participate in the discussion.
Because of this, a large number of scholars from all over the world visit Egypt every year to try to solve the unsolved mystery of this giant stone statue.
Geologist Robert Brown from United States. Shoch was one of them, and in 1993 he unveiled a number of astonishing discoveries.
The "longevity" of the Sphinx
Back in 1991, Robert · Schoch had already achieved a lot and was a rising star in United States science.
With a Ph.D. in geology from Yale University, he became a professor at Boston University at the age of 33 and received the prestigious Richter Prize.
In fact, at first, Robert was not interested in the Sphinx, because he had gradually shifted his interest to biology.
However, the successful Robert was suffering from "harassment" at this time, and he received multiple letters from John · Anthony · West.
The latter was a science fiction writer who was very interested in ancient Egypt civilization and always invited Robert to visit the local area.
After receiving the 21st letter from the other party, Robert was finally impressed and decided to go to Egypt with West to visit the mysterious Sphinx.
What Robert didn't expect was that although West was a writer, he did have extraordinary insights into Egypt civilization.
Inspired by West, Robert spent a lot of time studying the Sphinx and soon made some surprising discoveries.
They made this research trip into a documentary called "The Mystery of the Sphinx".
The documentary, which premiered in 1993, became an unprecedented sensation, and many of Robert's novel claims attracted the attention of United States.
Robert suggested that the Sphinx had obvious signs of water-water corrosion, so it was likely to have been flooded and submerged for a long time.
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It stands to reason that this is impossible. Because the area where the pyramid is located has little precipitation all year round, there is no possibility of erosion by flowing water.
Therefore, Robert proposed a hypothesis that the Sphinx was probably born earlier than the ancient Egypt civilization.
According to his research, the region where Egypt is located was in a wet period before 10,000 BC, and it is highly likely that there was a major flood.
Considering that the ancient Egyptian civilization was founded in 4000 BC, Robert believes that the Sphinx should not have been built by Egyptians.
He speculated that before the Egyptians, a highly developed civilization had been born in the region, and that it was these people who built the Sphinx.
Not only that, Robert also pointed out in the documentary that the head of the Sphinx was most likely rebuilt by ancient Egypt.
There are two main reasons for this. First of all, the Sphinx's head-to-body ratio is extremely incongruous, and it is likely that it was not built at the same time.
Secondly, Robert found that the head of the Sphinx did not show signs of being corroded by running water, and it was very likely that it was a "secondary creation" because it did not match the body.
Based on a number of geological data, Robert speculated that there was probably a large underground space under the Sphinx, and there was a certain probability that there were traces of prehistoric civilizations preserved in this space.
After the documentary aired on NBC TV in the United States, it caused quite a stir, but then Robert and West were also caught in a wave of doubt.
Further refinement of the hypothesis
It is reported that many historians have questioned Robert's research, especially the claim of "prehistoric civilization".
Some scholars have been quite vehement, directly classifying Robert's documentary as an unrealistic "United States fantasy."
There are so many rumors about the Sphinx that most of them sound plausible, but in fact they are completely absurd.
For example, an United States Order once took the opportunity to investigate the Sphinx in the name of scientific research. As a result, their so-called research is "meditating" on the pyramids, which makes scholars laugh and cry.
In their opinion, Robert and West are not serious about research at all, they just want to rub off on the popularity of the Sphinx.
But Robert also had supporters, such as the United Kingdom geologist Colin · Reid, who later published his study of the Sphinx. His statement is similar to Robert's, only with some improvements in some details that are more acceptable.
For example, Red believes that the body parts of the Sphinx do have traces of corrosion by flowing water, but they have nothing to do with the great flood, but more like the result of repeated heavy rains.
After analyzing the meteorological data, Red found that before 4500 BC, the climate in this area where Egypt is located was very humid and relatively abundant rain.
Therefore, he believes that the construction of the Sphinx is likely only a few hundred years before the establishment of Egypt, and it is unlikely that it will advance to before 10,000 BC all at once.
According to Red and others, the statue should not have been built by a prehistoric civilization, but a civilization slightly earlier than Egypt.
However, even Red's slightly mild statement is not accepted by the historiographical community. They still adhere to their previous judgment, arguing that the highest civilization in the region was ancient Egypt before any archaeological discoveries were made.
After all, in their view, all the conclusions of Robert and Red are speculations based on geological discoveries. There is no direct evidence other than the so-called traces of corrosion by flowing water.
However, there is also the possibility of a "reversal" here, that is, Robert has proposed that there is a mysterious space under the Sphinx.
If this claim is eventually confirmed, is it possible to test the hypothesis proposed by Robert et al. by the archaeological findings?
Huge controversy in the historiography
In fact, Robert was not the first to hypothesize a mysterious space. Prior to this, speculation had been emerging, and there were even a number of people who found scientific evidence.
They came from Waseda University in Japan and were part of Professor Koji Yoshimura's research team, who used electromagnetic surveys to fully scan the Sphinx.
During the scan, Japan scientists found a lot of anomalies. After in-depth analysis of these anomalies, Koji Yoshimura concluded that there was a mysterious room beneath the Sphinx.
Not only that, but the scans also showed that there was more than one mystery room. They are connected by roads to each other, and are likely an undiscovered underground city.
After the publication of the relevant paper, Koji Yoshimura immediately contacted the Egypt government, hoping to go deep underground to investigate.
However, the Egypt government ultimately rejected the request, citing the protection of cultural relics.
Therefore, when Robert again proposed the hypothesis of mysterious underground space in a documentary in 1993, the Egypt government was once again pushed to the forefront.
And this time, a historian stood up and publicly refuted Robert's claims and stood up for the Egypt government: Tashi · Hawass, known as the father of Egypt archaeology.
It is reported that Hawass had just been fired due to a vicious incident at that time, and was worried that he could not continue the archaeological work he had in mind.
He rushed to the forefront of preserving ancient Egypt civilization, publicly refuting Robert many times, calling all his speculations fallacious.
Not only that, Hawass also mobilized a large number of historians who studied ancient Egypt and called on them to refute Robert's fallacy.
In the face of such a huge voice of doubt, Robert, who was alone, finally couldn't bear it and silently withdrew from the debate. He gave up his research on the Sphinx to the field of biology, and soon stood out and broke new ground.
It stands to reason that this is the end of the story.
However, there was an unexpected change in 2009, when Fox TV in United States approached Hawass to make a documentary about the Sphinx.
At this time, Hawass was serving as the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, with full responsibility for archaeological research related to the pyramids.
At the urging of the journalists, Hawass led them behind the Sphinx, and soon they came to the entrance to a sewer-like shaft.
As can be seen from the documentary, the passage of this shaft is long and narrow, and the reporters can only enter the space below through a ladder.
After passing through the passage, a huge mysterious space comes into view. The space is filled with stagnant water, and there are not only four huge stone pillars in the center, but also a mysterious coffin.
The sight of Fox excited the reporters at Fox, who were eager to know which big man was buried in the coffin, and if there really was a mysterious prehistoric civilization.
If this can be figured out, many of the riddles about the Sphinx will be answered, and the documentary will definitely make a splash at that point.
However, Hawass seemed to remember something, and his face suddenly changed, and he refused the interview, and asked the reporter to delete the negatives so that the content could not be made public.
Of course, Fox's reporters eventually tricked Havas into the feature film.
And this fully shows that Robert and Professor Koji Yoshimura's judgment is not wrong, and there is indeed a mysterious space under the Sphinx.
However, in the face of a large number of media interviews, both Hawass himself and the Egypt government invariably remained silent and refused to disclose any information.
As a result, the mysterious space under the Sphinx eventually became an unsolved mystery.
epilogue
In this way, Robert's study of the Sphinx is indeed unique, and some of his inferences are likely to be correct. Unfortunately, because of the strict defense of the Hawass team and the Egypt government, the world will not be able to know the truth in a short time.
However, the Egypt government's approach is understandable, and the pyramids and sphinxes are precious artifacts that do not need to be handed over to Western scholars for study.
What's more, the Egyptians did not trust the European and United States in the first place, who let them snatch a lot of treasures from here back then. The more than 100,000 Egyptian artifacts in the British Museum are ironclad proof of this.
Resources:
1.《狮身人面像之谜》——CCTV-10科教
2. "[972 Listening to Strangeness] The Mystery of the Sphinx" - Guizhou Internet Radio and Television Station
3. "The Three Mysteries of the Sphinx" - "Middle School Chinese (Student Edition)" 2010 No. 04